Chapter 227 - 0227

TW: Childhood sexual abuse and trauma.

Kaelen POV

Within seconds, the rest of the memories came rushing back, so vivid and suffocating that it felt like I was being dragged into them all over again.

I was ten years old, sitting on the rug in front of the fireplace in that isolated cottage. I could still remember the warmth of the flames and the way I had been happily piecing together a little wooden toy car she had given me.

At the time, I had looked up at her with nothing but genuine affection, convinced that maybe, just maybe, I had finally found someone who wanted to be my mother.

Then everything changed.

The memory shifted, and suddenly she was kneeling behind me, her arms wrapped around my shoulders. Her hands slipped beneath my shirt, and I remembered the warmth of her breath against my neck.

"Let me help you feel good," her voice echoed through my mind, sweet in a way that made my stomach twist. "You like how much I care about you, don’t you?"

"No... I don’t like that." My younger voice came back to me, small and frightened. I remembered squirming in her hold, too confused to understand what was happening but terrified enough to know I wanted her to stop. "Please, stop..."

"Shh. Keep quiet. If anyone finds out, your father will kill you for this."

The memories began flashing faster, one after another, each one cutting deeper than the last. My chest tightened as the darkness inside my head stirred, and then that voice came roaring back.

Stop speaking. Shut your mouth. Keep it locked inside. You are broken. You are a monster. SHUT UP!

I squeezed my eyes shut, gasping as the pressure inside my skull became unbearable. It felt like my head was being split open from the inside, and I clenched my jaw so tightly it hurt. My hands twitched with the desperate urge to grab my hair and pull until the pain drowned everything else out.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I was ten years old again, trapped inside a memory I had spent years trying to bury, while that voice tore through my mind like it wanted to rip every last thought apart.

Then, just as suddenly, the noise began to fade.

Warmth surrounded both sides of my head, and soft hands gently covered my ears, shielding me from the screaming inside my mind.

"It’s okay," a gentle voice whispered, reaching through the darkness.

Lorelei.

Her small fingers rested against my scalp, her palms covering my ears while her thumb moved softly through my hair.

She had leaned closer beneath the velvet blanket, her forehead resting against mine as though she was trying to pull me back into the present without forcing me to say another word.

"I’m right here, Kaelen," she whispered again and again, her voice cutting through the chaos in my head. "I’m right here. You’re safe with me. She can’t touch you anymore."

I held on to those words like they were the only thing keeping me from slipping back into that darkness. Slowly, the demonic whispers began to fade until there was nothing left but silence, the sound of Lorelei’s steady breathing, and the warmth of her body pressed close to mine.

With her beside me, I finally found the courage to speak again.

I told her everything. Every detail I could remember. Every part of what that woman had done to me, and how, over time, I had become so numb to it that the nightmare had stopped feeling like something that was happening to me and simply became my life.

"She was obsessed with me," I rasped, the words scraping painfully against my throat. "It was sick, Lorelei. But she genuinely believed we were meant to be together. She even convinced herself that she could somehow have my child."

My fingers tightened slightly around hers.

"And because no one from the pack ever bothered to check on me, there was no one to stop her. No one to tell me that what was happening was wrong. That was just the reality I was forced to live with."

I paused, feeling her soft breath brush against my cheek as she stayed close.

"The older I got, the more I tried to distance myself from her. But she hated that." My voice grew quieter. "Whenever I spoke to other girls my age or even showed them the slightest bit of attention, she would lose her mind. She became so violently jealous that she once locked me in that dark cellar for days without food."

Lorelei sucked in a sharp breath, her arms tightening around me as though she could somehow protect the ten-year-old boy I had once been.

"Oh, Goddess..." she whispered, her voice trembling with anger and heartbreak. "She was completely insane."

I gave a slow, heavy nod.

"That’s why I have a theory." I looked into her eyes, forcing myself to say the part I had never been able to explain properly. "I think that’s why she cursed me. Why my wolf can’t stand being touched by other women."

Hearing that, Lorelei’s expression shifted, and her attention turned sharp.

"Her jealousy was so twisted, so deep, that I believe she somehow bound herself to my soul. Even after I finally grew strong enough to fight back and escape her as a teenager, whatever she had done to me remained."

I swallowed, my gaze dropping briefly before returning to hers.

"That’s why, whenever another woman gets too close, I hear her voice at the back of my head. It’s like she’s still there, reminding me that I’m not allowed to belong to anyone else."

I swallowed hard and took a shaky breath.

"Most of the time, I can manage it. The witches’ suppression rituals, the potions, and lately..." My gaze softened as I looked at her. "Having you near me seems to help more than anything else. But sometimes, like tonight, whatever is inside me gets too angry, and I lose control completely."

Lorelei remained quiet for a moment, her thumbs still moving gently over my scalp beneath the heavy blanket. She seemed to be gathering the courage to ask her next question, and when she finally did, there was a faint tremor in her voice.

"What happens when you can’t control yourself?" she asked. "I mean... what would have happened if you hadn’t come back to yourself just now?"